Kindergarten projects: nature, helping others, healthy eyes and friends in Europe
During the year at Sovička, your child takes part in four projects: Rozhýb labky, Koľko lásky sa zmestí do krabice od topánok (How Much Love Fits in a Shoebox), Zdravé oči už v škôlke (Healthy Eyes at Kindergarten) and eTwinning. Each one gives your child something different. They get to know Slovak nature through movement and find out what it is like to make a stranger happy. Their eyesight is checked free of charge, and they get to know kindergartens in other countries too.
Rozhýb labky
This programme for kindergartens was created by the DAPHNE Institute of Applied Ecology as part of the Príroda pre všetkých (Nature for Everyone) project. During the year, children get to know Natura 2000 habitats and the protected animals that live in them. For each animal they try an exercise inspired by the way it moves, so they learn about nature with their whole body.
How Much Love Fits in a Shoebox
Koľko lásky sa zmestí do krabice od topánok is a nationwide Christmas appeal run by the Koľko lásky civic association. Families pack small presents for lonely older people into shoeboxes, and the children add a drawing or a greeting. They experience that you can bring joy to someone you have never met.
Healthy Eyes at Kindergarten
Zdravé oči už v škôlke is run by the Slovak Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted (ÚNSS). Children aged 3 to 6 have their eyesight checked free of charge and without contact, right at kindergarten. The check can pick up problems such as a lazy eye or a squint early, and you get a recommendation on whether to see an eye doctor.
eTwinning
eTwinning is a European platform where teachers work with kindergartens in other countries on joint projects. The children find out how their peers elsewhere in Europe live and what they play. This gives English a real purpose for them.
What your child gets from the projects
The projects add experiences to our “Me and the World” programme that are hard to recreate in the classroom. In Rozhýb labky, environmental education goes hand in hand with the movement children need every day. With the Christmas appeal, they experience that even a small present can make someone happy. This builds on our EQ programme. The eye check is preventive care you get without booking an appointment or waiting. And through eTwinning the children find out how their peers in other countries live and play.
We write more about why children remember best what they experience in our article Learning through experience. We write about movement and nature in our article Why children need more movement and less sitting.
We are joining eTwinning right now. We will let you know about the first joint projects and the countries the children will work with in our news.
How you can take part too
- Christmas shoeboxes: before Christmas you and your child pack a shoebox with small presents. Your child adds a drawing or a greeting, and you bring it to kindergarten. We will tell you the date of the appeal in good time.
- Eye checks: when the kindergarten joins the programme, you receive the result of the check with a recommendation on whether a visit to an eye doctor is needed.
- Rozhýb labky: ask your child which animal they are learning about and let them show you the exercise. The programme also offers tips for family trips into nature.
Natura 2000 and protected animals for the youngest
Natura 2000 is a network of protected areas in the European Union. In the Rozhýb labky programme, children get to know its habitats, such as forests, meadows and wetlands, and the animals that live in them in Slovakia. When they move like a bear or a lizard, they remember better where the animal lives and why it needs protecting.
Would you like to see what an ordinary week looks like here?
Come and see the kindergarten closest to you with your child. The visit is free of obligation, and we fit the time around you.
